Merry Christmas To All (or, How I Re-Discovered The Christmas Spirit) ...

Well, 2009 is coming to a close. For some reason, Christmas Day always seems so anti-climactic to me. I guess it's because it's become such a commercial holiday. I turned on the TV today, and what are they playing? You guessed it: the "hey, that gift you got sucked, so come in for our door-buster Day After Christmas sale and spend even MORE money to get the stuff you REALLY wanted that those cheapskates didn't get you when we were having our Black Friday Sale, Black Friday Weekend sale, 12 Days of Christmas Sale, Christmas Eve Sale, or Christmas Day Sale" commercials.

This year, though, the holidays seemed a bit different. I was unemployed for two (thankfully) short months at the beginning of the year, so that made me wise up a bit about my spending habits. I became a bit more politically- and historically-minded, which drove me to learn about what our country has gone through in the short 233 years it's been around. And finally, 3 days before Christmas, I came home to find the volunteer fire department had blocked off the intersection to get into my subdivision --- because one of our neighbors' houses caught on fire and burnt down to the ground.

3 days before Christmas. And they have an 8 year-old son.

Thankfully, there weren't any people in the house when it caught fire, but unfortunately, they lost 2 of their 3 dogs, which they had to bury today, on Christmas. Our neighbor that lives across the street, who used to be on the volunteer fire department, was able to run into the house while it was on fire and save the golden retriever, and they're now caring for it while the family is displaced.

Sadly, the family lost EVERYTHING. The only thing that's left of the house is the brick shell of the first floor and some charred boards. They had an antique Ford Mustang in the garage that now looks indistinguishable from a picture of a car bombing. They didn't have insurance on the car.

That night, the news had come out and done a live report from the scene (which is amazing, to me, because the Cincinnati news stations, despite saying that they serve the Tri-State area, hardly EVER do any stories about anything in Indiana), and it had been on the 11 o'clock news. Families from different areas of the subdivision and other nearby subdivisions had walked up to see the damage when they saw the flames and the flashing lights of the fire trucks. Once the fire department had opened the road again, cars were driving by left and right, surveying the charred remnants of the house. Apparently, this was the news of the night in our little community.


I was glad to hear that night, when I got home, that our neighbors weren't injured (or worse) in the fire, and that their parents were able to take them in that night after the flames were put out, the fire hoses rolled up, and the investigators had taken their leave. But I felt so bad for them, that they had NOTHING, 3 days before Christmas. What a way to kill the Christmas Spirit.

Or, so I thought.

The next morning, cars were still driving by, slowing down, as if they were merely driving past to see a particularly incredible Christmas lights display. But, then, we started to get people knocking on the door. "I heard about what happened, on the news last night," one woman said, "I'm getting ready to head down to finish some last-minute Christmas shopping. What do they need?" Taken aback, I explained that what she saw that was left of the house was pretty much all they had. "I'll stop back here once I'm finished shopping," she'd said.

And she wasn't the only one.

Car-full by car-full, people were driving up and dropping off clothes, shoes, canned goods, cereal, money, gift cards, toys for their son, and even offering to give the family dachsunds to help fill the void that had opened up when the family's two dachsunds had perished in the fire the night before. And it wasn't just people in our community. We were seeing people with Ohio and Kentucky license plates stopping their cars and dropping off donations. One man even came up, explained to my dad that he had been unemployed for a while, but he and his wife had been blessed, so he wanted to help out the family. He gave my dad a $100 bill. When my dad thanked him and asked him who he should put down for the name, the man simply said he wanted to remain anonymous.

Today, Christmas Day, people are still coming up and dropping off bags of clothes, money, offering furniture, and giving what they feel personally compelled to donate. They're taking time out of their day, to give back. Any time is a horrible time to lose everything in a house fire, but something really tugs at our heart when it happens 3 days before Christmas. I feel like the Grinch, whose "heart grew three sizes that day!" ...

Christmas always felt so anti-climactic because of the big importance placed upon what were the best gifts to get. Well, I got some neat things today, including some clothes, jewelry, a food dehydrator, a movie, and a video game. But those weren't the best gifts that I received (even though I love them all!). I got to see our community show that when times are tough, we can pull together. That we can give, not because government mandates that we do, but because our hearts lead us to do so, and that we can make better choices about who we want to give to, and what we want to give. I got to see local and not-so-local people rally together to make sure that a family doesn't feel alone and out in the cold during one of the most magical times of the season. I got to see, firsthand, that we aren't the nation of heartless cheapskates that some would make us out to be, but the most giving, charitable, and helpful country on Earth.

And who doesn't like to see that, in action, on Christmas?

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.